Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Case of the Mondays
Too much sleep.

[Not enough sleep.]

Too much work.

Too much thinking.

And that just puts me in a weird mood all day long. Blech.

Set iTunes to: Violent Femmes. Yeah, like that's going to make it all better. Permanent residence in the monastery ain't sounding too bad right about now. God, why can't I just be a monk? Realizing that I'm a vulnerable emotional creature and not a perfect, invincible superhero bothers me to no end. Today I feel like this penguin.

In the month of September, 250+ unique visitors stopped by this website. In October, that number more than doubled to surpass 600. There were 40 on Monday to read the brilliant post that had been sitting there since Thursday. This, I know, includes a growing contingency of people I interact with on a daily basis, and so this means that this little project here is no longer just about me. Editorial discernment is a skill I will need to further sharpen.

So Dr. Bauer informs us we may order the most expensive item on the menu. Dr. Bauer is a Biblical studies professor who invited five of us Biblical Studies MA guys out to lunch to discuss big-picture-vocational-Ph.d-planning kind of stuff. I was really looking forward to this. Everything on the lunch menu at Wah Mei is $3.95. Can't go wrong with General Tsao.

Now I'm the oddball of the group. I'm so out of my league. I'm the one guy whose degree is not in some sort of theology (it was English lit), and I'm the one guy not interested in New Testament studies (gimme the First Testament). The zinger of the conversation came when Dr. Bauer informed us that while everybody else at seminary gets to think about spiritual formation first and grades second, not so we the chosen few MA in Biblical Studies. The competition for the top Ph.d programs is out of sight and GPA is everything. That's just what I wanted to hear at this time that I feel like a juggler with one ball more than he's ever juggled with before.

Bottom line of the conversation: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Emory and Duke are the top divinity schools for Biblical studies. When I ask about specifically OT programs, he mentions Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, but he's thing is NT, so I have further research to do. Game plan now is to start looking at all these programs and see what their requirements are--whether that's a 60-hour MA, 90-hour MA or double MA. At 9 hours a semester this seminary thing could take awhile.

Visited another new church on Sunday morning. They meet in a movie theater. This was their first Sunday with two services instead of just one, and they were quite excited about it. Reminded me in some ways of Clear River back in Virginia. In others, not so much. Such as, the meet-and-greet part of the service where people shake your hand, telling you how glad they are that you're here, and yet neglect to even ask your name or who you are or why you might be in their church. I mean, what's with that? And it was more than one person I experienced that with, too.

Some links to check out...

I dragged some friends Saturday night to go see The Bourne Supremacy for a buck-50. I had been invited over to Alan's, and I should have taken my crew there as I missed out on the thrilling conversation on ecclesiastical legitimacy. Okay, so maybe the posse wouldn't have gotten into it, and I feel less like I missed out now thanks to Alan's epic thought process:
It [apostolic succession] seems to have sprung from fear, and a view of episcopal ministry that was more about teaching right doctrines than lovingly shepherding people. I think I see a problem developing that still has a home in our midst.


Kyle reinforces my idea that there are no weirder, unhealthy singles than Christian singles and that we all need to rethink our semantics on the issue yesterday:
While I am not in a romanitic or sexual relationship with anyone, I am not "single" in any way that is meaningful to me, and I am certainly not "alone." For that reason, I wouldn't touch "singles ministry" with a ten foot pole. It's really a "lonely persons" ministry or a matchmaker gathering, because people who don't fit in those catagories probably don't see the need for such a thing.


And Gordon has another essay that makes me wish I was a better writer:
See, I think Christianity is like a human poem, written over thousands of years by people who have a sense that there is something more important for us than just waking up every day and going about our business. I’m one of those people, I’m afraid. I know that makes me seem a little foolish to you, but maybe you have room in your life for one goofy friend, huh?


There, I'm feeling better.

Yeah, I'll go to bed now.

posted by Peter at 1:39 AM
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